Plate

Tectonics:
The Unifying
theory

Use links below for

2001 to 2015
Earthquakes
(marking the most
important plate
boundaries)
On a map:
https://youtu.be/ph7Eczs-nTI

On a rotating globe
https://youtu.be/JdTYmICg29Y
Plate Tectonics - Guiding questions:
• What is plate tectonics? And what drives plate tectonics? (sources of energy)
• What happens at plate boundaries? (the three different types of plate
boundaries)
• How fast do plates move? (ranges, ‘slow’ vs. ‘fast’ plates)
• How many major plates?
• What happens within plates? (i.e. what are hot spots)
• How old is the oceanic floor? How can the age of the seafloor be determined?
• Are continents older than the oceanic floor? (Why? How do we know that is
true?)
• If the Earth is billions of years old: What happened to earlier ocean floor?
• What are supercontinents? How do they form? What is the Wilson Cycle?
• How will the distribution of continents and oceans change in the future?
(over several million years)
Fall 2022:
Change compared to lecture slides in 2021:

1. Basic concepts first:

(intro-and-basic-concepts slide deck)
2. Moved explanation on how we got there
(Wegener) later

In essence the content is the same, just arranged

differently
Part I:

What is it and why start here?

Plate
Tectonics
Explains the root
causes of most
geological
processes.

Earth’s crust is
divided in
fragments that
move relative to
each other.

Major activity
when plates
interact with each
other
20
0
40
50

Exiting tectonic plates are composed of only

oceanic crust or combination of continental and
oceanic crust. Type of crust is not a defining
feature, plate boundaries are
How many plates?

*Some plate boundaries are poorly defined, major vs. minor split is arbitrary
Bird (2003)
14 plates account for 95% of the Earth’s surface
But how many
‘major’ plates is
arbitrary:

Seven if
counting only
plates with
area > 5%

Ten if counting
only plates with
area > 2%

14 if ranked so
that total area is
at least 95%

*Some plate boundaries are poorly defined, major vs. minor split is arbitrary
Here is a different
way to evaluatehow
many ‘major plates’
(figure modified
from Bird 2003)

The units used for

areas is not very Three major groups:
relevant to us. III - Next 3 largest
For reference the
area of a sphere II - Next 4 largest
is about 12.5 I - Real large ones
steradians
Plate boundaries: types of boundaries and relative rates of motion

https://opengeology.org/textbook/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Tectonic_plates_boundaries_detailed-en.svg_.png
Types of plate boundaries and rates of motion

Up to here
Sep. 15Th
2022
Grotzinger et al. (2007) Understanding the Earth
Examples of relative plate velocities

East Pacific Rise

(Pacific and Nazca plates): 138 to 150 mm/yr (~ 14 cm/yr)
Southern Ocean, south of Australia: 70 to 75 mm/yr (7 to 7.5 cm/yr)
South Atlantic (Mid-Atlantic Ridge): 34 to 35 mm/yr (~3.5 cm/yr)
Southern Ocean, south of Africa: 14 mm/yr (1.4 cm/yr)

Things to remember:
slowest relative motion is about 1.5 cm per year
fastest relative motion is about 15 cm per year
Key points:
• Plates move (roughly between 1 cm to 15 cm per year)
• The relative movement of plates generates 3 types of
plate boundaries (and subdivisions):
• Convergent (collision):
• Continental-continental
• Continental-oceanic
• Oceanic-oceanic
• Diverging (spreading and rifting):
• Continental rifting
• Ocean floor spreading
• Transform faults (plates slide past one another)
 • Convergent (collision):
• Continental-continental
• Continental-oceanic
• Oceanic-oceanic

What happens in collision zones?

The less dense plate sinks back into the mantle
Plates of similar density stack on top of each other
Why?
To solve a space issue. The surface of the planet
cannot accommodate all the crust that is being
formed.
Convergent Boundaries
Continent-continent convergence (continental collision)

Himalayan Tibetan
Mountains Plateau
mountains ranges
earthquakes
stalled subduction
crustal thickening

Eurasian
Eurasian
Plate
Plate
r a l
liia
ann P
P lla
atte
e
n
an-- A
Auusst
t r a
nd
IIn diia
Convergent Boundaries
Ocean-continent convergence (subduction)
Andes
volcanic mountain chains
(continental arcs) Mountains
folded mountains
deep earthquakes

Peru-Chile Trench

South
South
American
American
c a
a P
P l
laatte
e Plate
Plate
N
N a
azz c
Convergent Boundaries
Ocean-ocean convergence (subduction)
oceanic trench, Marianas
volcanic island arc Mariana Islands Trench
deep earthquakes

p ne
iin e P
Paacciiffiicc P
liip
p p Plla
Ph
P hiil atte
e
P atte
Plla
e
• Diverging (spreading and rifting):
• Continental rifting
• Ocean floor spreading

What happens in rifting zones?

A: magmas are generated, new oceanic
crust is formed
Divergent Boundaries
(b) Continental plate separation (rifting)
rift valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes

East
African
Rift Valley

S
Soom
maallii S
Su
n P
P atte
lla e ub
bpplla
atte
e
an
ica
Affrric
A
Divergent Boundaries
(a) Oceanic plate separation (spreading)

rifting, volcanoes, and earthquakes

Mid-
Atlantic
Ridge

e r
r i
i an
cca n E
Eu
Am
A m e urra
assiia
rrtth
h ann
No
N o atte
Plla
P e PPlla
atte
e
• Transform faults (plates slide past one another):
• Mid-ocean ridge transform faults
• Continental transform faults
Transform-Fault Boundaries
(a) Mid-ocean ridge transform fault

lateral (transform) faults and earthquakes

Euras
ia
Plate n

r i
i c
caan
n P
P atte
lla e
hAAm e
m er
No
N orrtth
 Another

a
example
Rid Fuc
ge
e
nd
Jua

B la
Fra nco
ctu
re
zon
e
Rid da
ge
r
Go
Transform-Fault Boundaries
(b) Continental transform fault
lateral (transform) fault

earthquakes

P lla
atte
e N
Noorrtth
ciffi
icc P hAAm
me
Pa
P aci erriicca
annP
Plla
atte
e
 Plate boundaries: average length and area production

Important aspects:
1. Almost 90% of all the new crust is formed in oceanic spreading centers
2. About 80% of all crust ‘destroyed’ goes back into the mantle in subduction
zones
3. Roughly 10% is ‘consumed’ in continental collisions (stacking, ‘shortening’ and
mountain building)
Main consequence of oceanic crust subduction:

Oceanic crust is continuously ”recycled” back into the

mantle, whereas continental crust is preserved
(although affected by erosion).

Continental crust have the oldest rocks known and, on

average, is much older than oceanic crust.
Age of the oceanic floor

https://ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/g01167-pos-a0001.pdf
Age of the oceanic floor
Areas with the same
color have the same
age
Range is from ~ 200
Million years
(Ma) to zero (new
rocks are forming
continuously)
Problem: The Earth
and the Continental
crust is much older:
What happened to
oceanic crust older
than 200 Ma?
https://ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/g01167-pos-a0001.pdf
Some important points:
(about what is preserved during plate interactions)
• Any continental crust that is generated will tend to
remain above the mantle (or above oceanic crust)
because continental crust is less dense.
• Most of the oceanic crust is continuously recycled
back into the mantle (because it is slightly more
dense than continental crust).
This explains why continental crust can be billion of years old
Part II:

How we got there (origin and evolution of the

concept – from “Continental Drift” to “Plate
Tectonics)
Plate tectonics theory is a good example of the
scientific method
Starting point: The ‘Continental
Drift’ (‘Sea-floor Spreading’)
hypothesis (Wegener 1915):
continents have ‘drifted’ apart over time

Key observation:
1. “jigsaw puzzle” fit of continents
2. Additional clues:
• Similar rock types and fossils
across continents
Main problem:
No way to explain how continental
masses could move
Evidence used by
Wegener
for his hypothesis:

Match of coastlines
(the best match is with
the continental shelf)

Distribution of some
fossils (this slide)

Match of some rocks

(not shown here,
see previous slide)

Image source: National Geographic

‘Continental drift’ started
as a hypothesis
(a proposed
explanation)

The explanation (insight)

allowed to make
predictions
(anticipate)

Over time new evidence

supporting the idea
allowed the
hyporhesis to be
‘upgraded’ to
Full text available on D2L. Very good account on how Wegener’s ideas
THEORY evolved over time and how hypotheses were validated
Often ‘model’ is used
to mean ‘theory’:
a set of concepts
to explain natural
phenomena.

The usefulness of
theories/models
could be
summarized this
way:

“none are perfect, but

the good ones are
useful”
The major hurdle: the notion that the crust is fixed and
too rigid to move
Key observations
and ideas:
Concept of mantle
convection
Discovery of ridges
dissecting ocean
basins (mid-ocean
ridges) with continuous
geological activity

Work of many people: Arthur

Holmes (1926)…Ewing…Hess
and Deitz (1950s and 60s)
Plate tectonics theory is a good example of the
scientific method
• Iterative process: every new set of observations
(e.g. oceanic ridges, seismic activity, etc.) validated
predictions (speculations) and helped refine the
explanations.
• Multiple lines of evidence provided independent support
to the hypothesis
• No longer contested, plate tectonics provides a coherent
explanation of the geological record and geological
processes.
Some of the key evidence: Map of the oceanic floor
(first map of the Atlantic Ocean - Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp, 1957)
Some of the key evidence: The Earth’s magnetic
field and interaction with the oceanic crust
• Relative motion of inner core against outer core (Geodynamo) generates
a magnetic field (more on this later)
• Because some minerals are magnetic (and align with prevalent magnetic
field during cooling of magmas) certain rocks keep record of the
orientation of magnetic field
• Sampling of oceanic floor has shown that the magnetic field of the Earth
FLIPS every few thousand years (although there are no clear
explanations for this - yet)
• These magnetic reversals, combined with age dating of the rocks are the
fundamental EVIDENCE that oceanic floor expands continuously
Original figure: location and summary
diagram of the magnetic anomalies
Magnetic anomalies
The cartoon on the left is a simplification. The mage on the right is the real distribution.
(dark red: current orientation of the magnetic field; light blue: inverted magnetic field)
In essence the sea floor is like a magnetic tape recorder

Up to here
Sep. 19Th
2022
Key aspects so far:
• Relative motion of plates is no longer controversial (can be tracked and
measured in real time with GPS)
• Oceanic floor can be dated directly (more on that later)
• Distance from nearest oceanic ridge indicates relative age
(allow ‘correlations’ a key concept in geology – more on this later)
• Seismic data, experiments at high P and T, deep rocks carried by volcanoes,
provide indirect information about the structure and composition of the crust and
mantle
• Therefore, PLATE TECTONICS is a very robust theory.
• Some volcanic and seismic activity cannot be explained by plate tectonic
(events are away from plate boundaries).
Hence other hypotheses are needed: mantle plumes (hot spots)